


Can't Lie to You

by dragon_temeraire



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Never Met, Fluff, Light Angst, M/M, Pining, Soulmates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-15
Updated: 2017-12-15
Packaged: 2019-02-15 00:53:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,377
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13019832
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dragon_temeraire/pseuds/dragon_temeraire
Summary: Derek Hale shows up in the middle of their sophomore year, looking like life’s kicked him around a lot lately.





	Can't Lie to You

**Author's Note:**

> I saw this “soulmates can’t lie to each other” prompt, and I just had to write this little fic.

Stiles lied to his father often, for a lot of different reasons. He likes to think that his dad has figured most of them out by now. He’d also lied to his mom there at the end, mostly in answer to questions like “Did you sleep here?” and “How is school going?” and “Honey, are you crying?”

But he generally tries not to lie to his friends. He knows that he _can_ lie to Scott, because when he’d called a week after the funeral and asked, “Are you okay?” Stiles had said he was, even though he hadn’t gotten out of bed in two days.

But these days, he tries not to lie unless he absolutely needs to.

 

*

 

Derek Hale shows up in the middle of their sophomore year, looking like life’s kicked him around a lot lately. He scowls and sits by himself every day, and Scott thinks he looks lonely.

Stiles is used to Scott taking in strays by this point, and is mostly willing to humor his efforts. Which is, of course, how Derek ends up eating lunch with them. Stiles is mostly shocked that Derek agreed at all, and at first their conversations are stilted and awkward and prone to silence.

But Scott is eternally friendly and Stiles knows how to talk enough for two people, and after a few days Derek stops spending lunch staring unhappily at his tray. It takes a little longer for him to actually start talking, but piece by piece, they get his story.

It turns out life _has_ kicked Derek around a lot.

When he and his family lived in New York, Derek had met a girl that insisted that she couldn’t lie to him, that she was his soulmate. Derek hadn’t been hers, though, because he’d tried a harmless little lie and had been able to say it easily.

It was rare, but it did happen from time to time—you were meant for someone, but they weren’t meant for you.

Her distress at finding that out had made Derek feel incredibly guilty, and he’d gone on dates with her, tried his best to do everything she asked of him. He just wanted to make her happy. But she hadn’t accepted that, and had repaid his kindness by setting his house on fire, with his whole family inside.

They’d all gotten out in time, but it had shaken up Derek pretty badly.

They’d promptly moved all the way across the country to a small town in California to start over.

And now Derek hardly speaks to anyone at all, not wanting to know if he’s able to lie to them.

 

*

 

Stiles finds out when he’s making a joke.

They’re a good way through the school year, and he and Derek are something like friends now, which Stiles considers a great personal achievement. And Stiles likes teasing his friends, so when Derek complains about his algebra grade, then says he _knows_ Stiles will help him study, Stiles scoffs.

“Me, helping you? Dude, I don’t even—” _like you_ , he tries to say, but his tongue just goes still in his mouth, jaw muscles clenching around words that aren’t there. “—have that kind of time, you know Harris is going to keep giving me detentions,” he tries to recover, but his heart is pounding.

_Derek Hale is his soulmate_.

And normally discovering something like that would fill him with joy, but right now all he has is a heavy, sinking dread. Because Derek probably doesn’t want to know, might not be interested even if he did.

He’s not even sure Derek believes in soulmates anymore.

 

*

 

Stiles is sitting alone near the top of the bleachers, eating his lunch and working on his homework. It’s the third day in a row that he’s done this.

He’d told Scott and Derek that he had extra credit assignments he needed to get done, but he doesn’t think either of them believed him. But he can’t face Derek for more than a few minutes at a time, not when his traitor mouth could blurt out everything.

He’d tried lying to Derek again, yesterday. They’d been walking down the hall, and he’d muttered, “Man, I hate—” _Star Wars_ , but he could only finish the sentence in his head, and stumbling a little, he’d added, “—that book we’re reading in English class.”

So it hadn’t been a fluke. He knows it’s real, at least for him.  

And he knows he needs to tell Derek, but he also needs _time_. He needs to figure out a way to do this where he doesn’t lose Derek’s friendship.

He’s halfway through his Chemistry problems when he feels the bleachers shake, and he sees Derek making his way up. He tries not to wince.

Derek sits down next to him, surveys the empty practice field for a moment before saying, “Are you okay?”

Stiles works his jaw around, is unable to come up with something truthful enough to verbalize, and just shrugs his shoulders instead.

Derek nods, like that’s what he was expecting. “Do you want to talk about it?”

“Yes,” Stiles says, more quickly than he intends. “But not here.”

“Okay,” Derek says, giving him a lingering, concerned look. “I’ll come by your house after school.”

It’s not as much time as he was hoping for, but it’s better than nothing.

 

*

 

Derek shows up at his door about an hour after Stiles gets home, which gives him more than enough time to pace anxiously around his living room, but _not_ enough time to figure out a deflection, or a way to resolve this in a way that won’t hurt Derek more.

After everything that happened to Derek just a few months ago, it seems like a terrible idea to spring this on him.

But he can’t chicken out now, because Derek is here, sitting at his kitchen table and looking at him worriedly. “Stiles, what’s going on?”

“I’m sorry,” Stiles says, leaning heavily on the table. “I know you don’t want to hear this, but. I can’t lie to you.”

Derek stiffens, his face hardening, and Stiles flinches.

“I just wanted you to know, I’m not trying to pressure you into anything,” Stiles says, because now that he’s started talking he can’t seem to _stop_. “I’m obviously not your soulmate—”

“What makes you say that?” Derek cuts in. He doesn’t sound angry, just…tense.

“We’ve spent a lot of time together, you would have found out by now,” Stiles says carefully.

Derek mulls that over, eyes flitting across Stiles’ face. “I’ve never actually tried to lie to you,” he says. “So I don’t know.”

Stiles feels his heart freeze in his chest. “Oh,” he says, trying to stay calm. “Okay.”

He thinks maybe Derek is just going to get up and leave, conversation over, but he stays there, hands clenched on the table. “Stiles, I think you’re—” he tries, and the words just _halt_. To Stiles’ surprise, a smile blooms, slow and steady, on Derek’s face. “Stiles, I think you’re _amazing_.”

Stiles wants to be gleeful, with Derek practically beaming at him, but. “I thought you didn’t want a soulmate,” he blurts. “Not anymore.”

“I wasn’t sure that I did,” Derek says, still smiling. “After everything that happened, I started to doubt myself. I began to wonder if I really had a soulmate at all, or if it turned out I just wasn’t right for _anyone_. So I decided it would be better if I just didn’t know.”

Stiles nods, a little heartbroken at knowing that everything Derek is saying is completely honest.

“And I was scared when you told me that you couldn’t lie. But I trust you, Stiles.” His hands uncurl from their clenched position. “And I realized I did want to find out, after all.”

Stiles tentatively reaches across the table, sliding their palms together. “So does that mean you want to try this? With me?”

“Yeah,” Derek says, slipping his fingers between Stiles’ and gently squeezing. “We’ll have to take things slow, though.”

“Slow is fine by me,” Stiles says, squeezing back. “Because I have no idea what I’m doing.” Then he rolls his eyes at himself, even as Derek laughs.

“We’ll figure it out together,” he says, and Stiles knows that it’s true.  

 

  

**Author's Note:**

> Feel free to come by and prompt me/talk to me [ on tumblr](http://dragon-temeraire.tumblr.com/).


End file.
